Dir. John Ford
68 Minutes
USA
1928
Starring: Farrell MacDonald, Nancy Drexel, Mildred Boyd, Warren Burke
***/*****
Riley the Cop is an entertaining, though fluffy, John Ford comedy, perhaps a low stakes opportunity to experiment with sound through its synchronized music and sound effect track (usually relegated to some knocking sounds or children shouting "Riley!"). The narrative is at home with something out of a Keystone comedy, where good-natured and well-liked policeman Riley ("You can judge a good cop by the arrests he doesn't make") gets into a variety of mishaps navigating from set piece to set piece. Riley is popular among New York City residents for not making arrests, though less popular as he sends the lawbreakers to other officers beats to avoid arresting them. Shifting focus to a pair of young lovers, conflict picks up when Mary is sent to Europe by her aunt in an effort by the woman to prevent her from marrying Davy. Davy follows to declare his love and gets accused of a crime landing him in a prison cell in Germany. Riley is dispatched to pick him up, but is lured by the siren song of German night life (and beer! which is legal!), causing him to meet and quickly fall for flapper girl Lena who has a few surprises of her own.Â
J. Farrell MacDonald is great fun as Riley, a character actor given a leading role and having fun with the opportunity. The strongest scenes come from his initial interactions with his love interest in Germany, the two of them halting in their steps and practically forgetting how to move. And Ford moves seamlessly from each sequence where the primary focus is to make the audience laugh. It is amusing fare and does not overstay its welcome, getting out just after an hour before the potential to grow tiresome becomes to form, though its slightness is a bit surprising considering what Ford had already accomplished at this point. Even stylistically, the film has none of the flourishes or Murnau-influenced touches of Upstream, Hangman's House, or Four Sons that precede this. But as a genre exercise, Riley the Cop is often successful, and a kind of carefree entertainment that has the potential to be enjoyed less by someone looking for a different type of Ford.
Viewed on July 16th, 2020
Part of an ongoing John Ford Project with notes from selected films.